There was a temporary victory today for federally-subsidized rental tenants in Maine who rely on medical marijuana to treat their illnesses. The Maine State Housing Authority decided to put off its "zero tolerance" policy on pot. Medical marijuana advocates, and Chelsea state Rep. Deborah Sanderson, persuaded the MSHA commissioners to impose an immediate six-month moratorium on their recent decision to deny housing vouchers to medical marijuana patients.  A.J. Higgins has more.

Equipped with a new executive director and a castigating audit from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General, commissioners on the board of directors for the Maine State Housing Authority continue to right what several consider a floundering state agency.

And now, after deciding last month to ban the use of medicinal marijuana by tenants who are also receiving federal housing benefits, the board is setting aside its ruling in response to pleas for fairness from some patients and the threat of potential litigation.

For Peter Anastos, commission chair, the panel's original decision to ban medicinal marijuana was based on federal law.
"Most of us agree with you, we want to do this, but we can't risk losing hundreds of thousands of dollars again - we're in trouble with HUD," said Anastos.

The problem facing MaineHousing pivots on the conflict between Maine's 13-year-old law that legalized the use of medical marijuana to treat certain illnesses, and federal law that prohibits the use of marijuana. HUD currently gives states flexibility in operating federally-subsized -- or Section 8 - housing programs that include medical marijuana patients -- but it does not expressly endorse such state policies.

Anastos is concerned that with HUD investigators already sizing up Maine's federal housing programs in the aftermath of an inspection failure, the state's medical marijuana policies could provide another target resulting in more penalties for Maine.

"We have to tow the line - and that is the problem," Anastos said. "A little sentence here while they're fighting it in court and shutting down dispensaries does not give us comfort. We need the law. We need support."

"I feel you have made an unfair and very wrong decision," said Rep. Deborah Sanderson, a Chelsea Republican, who serves on the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. As the sponsor of a bill that made refinements in the state's current medical marijuana law, she was particularly concerned about the MaineHousing ban, which she said is contrary to the will of Maine voters.

She said many Mainers were convinced the board's ban was tantamount to "waging a war on the poor" by forcing them to choose housing over their preferred method of treatment for their illnesses.

"You have instilled fear of homelessness upon people who are ill," Sanderson said. "I receive phone calls everyday. I am distressed that an agency in Maine dedicated to helping our poor obtain housing would take this kind of action against our folks who are not only poor, but ill."

Alysia Melnick, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, said HUD policies already recognize the rights of states to extend federal housing benefits to medicial marijuana patients, and that the MaineHousing could potentially face litigation if it did not reconsider its ban on medical marijuana.

"If this decision goes forward we will be exploring a legal challenge based on state law that explicitly says that discrimination against medical marijuana patients is only permissible if the entity could lose a federal contract or loss of federal funding," Melnick said.

With one abstention, the board voted unanimously to set aside its decision on the ban for 180 days to allow the agency's legal team to further research the matter and make policy recommendations.

Bruce Poliquin, Maine's state treasurer and a commissioner on the state housing board, also supported the moratorium out of fairness to all of MaineHousing's clients.

"We want to help as many people as we can but not jeopardize those that are in the program that might be jeopardize if we do something incorrectly," Poliquin said. "The state has a poor history of doing things that have not been allowed with federal money."

The board's decision will immediately affect six known Section 8 tenants who are medical marijuana patients.